


Precious Things

by cupidsintern



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Childhood Friends, F/F, Fem!Harringrove, Ficlet, Fluff, Genderswap, Light Angst, One Shot, Pining, They are lesbians, because i am a lesbian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-04-22 23:40:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22223425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cupidsintern/pseuds/cupidsintern
Summary: “Stop crying,” Billie said, lighting a cigarette. “He’s not worth it-”“Don’t tell me to just stop crying,” Stevie said back, semi-indignant even with her makeup running. “I’m having a really fucking hard time-”“I just mean you shouldn’t cry over some dumb boy-”“He’s not dumb!”“Yes he is! He’s being a dick!”“You’ve got to be the worst best friend in the fucking world, you know that?” Stevie wiped her eyes on her sleeve again.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington
Comments: 14
Kudos: 179
Collections: fem!harringrove





	Precious Things

“Stop crying,” Billie said, lighting a cigarette. “He’s not worth it-”

“Don’t tell me to just stop crying,” Stevie said back, semi-indignant even with her makeup running. “I’m having a really fucking hard time-”

“I just mean you shouldn’t cry over some dumb boy-”

“He’s not dumb!”   
“Yes he is! He’s being a dick!”   
“You’ve got to be the worst best friend in the fucking world, you know that?” Stevie wiped her eyes on her sleeve again. Or Billie’s sleeve, rather. Billie had pulled a sweatshirt from the backseat of her car for Stevie to ditch her halloween costume for. Stevie was wearing it now, curled up in the passenger's side of Billie’s car with racoon eyes and her hair down. She’d been crying for maybe an hour. 

“I’m sorry,” Billie tried. “I didn’t mean-”

“I know you didn’t  _ mean _ to be mean, it's just the way you  _ are _ .” Stevie rolled her eyes. “You’re a natural blonde and a natural bitch.”

“Thank you.” Billie tried not to think about how Stevie was still holding her hand. 

They hadn't even fully left the party yet. They were just sitting In Billie’s car half a block down. 

Stevie had run out of the bathroom back at Tina's house to find Billie, who was halfway chatted up by some guy on the baseball team. She needed a ride home.

“Can’t you see I’m fucking busy?” Billie had snapped after the second ask. “Go ask you’re dumb boyfriend to take you home.”

Stevie looked sort of wrecked at that.

Billie picked up on it almost immediately. She hopped off the kitchen counter she was sitting on, grabbed her jacket, made some excuse to the guy she was talking to, grabbed Stevie’s hand to pull her out of the party.

The guy wasn't too happy about it. “Where you going, baby?”

“None of your damn business.” Billie pushed his hand away. 

“Fucking tease!”

Billie flipped the guy off on their way out. 

“I’m sorry,” Stevie started when they got outside. “I didn’t mean to make you-”

“Don’t say sorry, it’s fine. What happened? Where’s your guy?”

Stevie didn't cry in front of people nearly ever. Billie'd only seen her cry like four times in their  _ ten years _ of friendship- or whatever it was by now- and once was when she broke her arm, which probably didn't even count because it was a physical reaction or whatever, but Stevie started crying right there on the sidewalk, still all dolled up in the halloween costume Billie had helped pick out.

Billie dragged Stevie to her car, gave her the sweatshirt, and now here they were. 

Billie stayed silent for a few moments, trying to think and not think about the situation. 

Because on the one hand, Stevie not having a boyfriend meant Billie got to have Stevie to herself, like she did most of the time since they were kids. Best friends. Inseparable. Not that Billie knew why, Stevie was probably out of her league, even just as a friend, and especially as more than a friend because billie shouldn't even be having thoughts like that about another girl, especially not this girl. Not this girl with doe eyes and chestnut-y hair that always smelled like apple or jasmine. So maybe just on the other hand, Billie hated Stevie being upset. Of course she spent a lot of time upsetting Stevie herself, but that was Billie’s job, and hers alone. Other people didn’t get to fuck with Stevie. Especially not to the point that she’d be sobbing heartbreak, shotgun in Billie’s car.

“I’m getting makeup on your sweatshirt.” Stevie pointed out after wiping her face for the millionth time.

“I don’t care.” Billie blew smoke out the window. “It’s old anyway.”

There is another thoughtful silence. 

“You said you didn’t know if he broke up with you.” Billie tapped her cigarette a couple times over the ashtray. “Why don’t you know?”

“He just- it’s like, he was upset that I wanted to come to the party? Or something? And I mean I get it, you know, last year we really hard for him and everything-”

“Don’t justify it, just talk.”

“He was saying, like, bullshit this, bullshit that and then he said it about our relationship and-” Stevies voice broke again. “And I said I loved him and he just stared at me and I said, you know, ‘you don’t love me?’” Billy watched fat tears roll down porcelain cheeks flushed with crying in the cold autumn air. 

“And what did he say?”

“Bullshit. Again.” Stevie said sort of bitterly. She swallowed a tiny sob. 

“Hey, hey.” Billy put an arm out and Stevie leaned her head forward against her chest. “He’s a piece of shit, ok?”

“But, I mean, I  _ love _ him.” 

Somehow that still hurt to hear. Billie ignored the twinge in her own heart though, and said, “What he said to you was fucked. You don’t deserve that.”

“That's what I always say to you, you’re just stealing my lines.”

“Is it working?” Billie smiled a little.

“I guess.” Stevie almost laughed. Then started crying again. 

Billie kept her in a hug for a while, trying to be there, with her, in the heartbreak, trying not to taste bitter victory, because no matter how many boys broke Stevie’s heart, there would always be another one to fix it, and this sort-of intimacy that Billie got in between, would be the most she  _ ever _ got. 

“Who was the guy you were talking to?” Stevie asked after a while, pulling back to sit up on her own.

“Some guy on the baseball team.”

“What was his name?”

“I honestly don’t remember.” Billie laughed. She never flirted with guys out of any real interest, she just liked the attention. “He was a jackass, anyway.”

“You say that about every guy.”

“And I’m fucking right. Men are trash, princess.” Billie grinned.

“God, yeah.” Stevie managed a smile. Her face fell again, “I feel like I'm gonna be sad forever.”

“You’re not. And I know cause I’ll be there.” Billie didn’t know really what she meant by that, but it sounded nice out loud.

“Yeah,” Stevie said, leaning sideways now to rest her head on Billie’s shoulder. Billie focused on not tensing for a moment before Stevie said:

“You know you're a total bitch,”

“Do I sense a ‘but’ somewhere in there?” Billie grinned.

“ _ But _ ,” Stevie conceded. “You’re a really good friend sometimes.”

“Gross, don’t  _ talk _ to me.”

“I’m serious!”

“If you’re gonna be a fucking sap, you have to get out of my car-”

“All the times I've been dumb enough to get my heart broken you’re always there for me! Always. And it’s nice to know 

I'll have someone who actually sticks around and never is gonna break my heart.”

God. 

If Stevie’s heart was hers, Billie’d never be so foolish as to break it. 

You should be careful with precious things.


End file.
